You might already know, that zoo became less and less popular due to the meta shifting, and zoo became a slower, more midrange oriented deck. However, that doesn’t mean that zoo is not viable for this meta anymore. With this zoo deck, I climbed from rank 5 to rank 1 in 1 day, about 8 hours, dropping 0 games between rank 2 and legend. Let me walk you through.

So what’s different about this deck you ask? Well, from a far sight, it might look like a normal zoo. But let me show you the difference.

Lack of Argent Squire – I found Argent Squire to be very weak against a lot of early aoe’s, and it wasn’t fast enough. If the enemy dropped a 1 health turn 1 minion, then yeah it’s great. However, if there was no response from the enemy turn 1 or 2, then it was just a lackluster 1 damage. I found the creepers to be the better turn 1/2 play for board control, more so than argent squire.

Addition of BloodSail Corsair – Now, if you guys have done the Naxxramas Adventure, then you know how efficient this little pirate was. This card does wonders against hunters or warriors, and even without destroying the weapon, it still passes the vanilla test easily. Compare this to Swamp Ooze. SO does pass the vanilla test, however it is more aggressive/faster card with 3/2 stats. BloodSail Corsair does what Ooze does for cheaper cost, and in my opinion, better stats. Hunters will always leave their weapons at 1 durability, and you snipe that weapon for massive tempo swing. The things this card can do is so wonderful. For 1 mana, you’re killing War Axe, Gorehowl, Hunting Bow, Truesilver Champion… etc you get it.

Addition of the Ironbeak Owl – Yes I know, this card is used in a lot of other zoo decks, but seriously, owl is so good! Against slow decks, you want to silence their taunts (cough belcher cough) but against zoo, you want to use it on the egg. One silenced Egg will win you the games, no lie.

Lack of Harvest Golems – I found it too slow, and didn’t like it very much.

The main purpose of this deck is BOARD CONTROL. You want early minion drops to control the board, and keep building on them with things like Defender of Argus, Shattered Sun Cleric, etc. For board control, you need to be willing to suck a guy’s dick as zoo.

Matchups:

vs Hunters : 80%+ winrate

Mullgian for : Flame imp, Voidwalker, Haunted Creeper

Hunters have unreliable draw mechanics. They literally have 0 card draws other than tracking, Buzzard + UTH combo. As a warlock, your hero power is a draw. What you want to focus on this matchup is 1. Win the early board control. 2. play around the UTH combo and Explosive Trap. Here’s how you go about it.

Early game, they will drop either webspinner or haunted creeper, followed by Animal Companion, then proceed to either arm their weapons or wait for UTH turn. You really don’t want to drop the Leper Gnome this early, because obviously, it will be killed by the webspinner or Haunted Creeper. On the other hand, 2 health minions such as Knife Juggler, Flame imp, etc are very good. And of course, our favorite taunt, void walker.

It is ALWAYS worth it to soulfire the 4/4 taunt from animal companion. it is a massive tempo swing.

Kill the creeper, as much as you would want to leave it as is, you need to pop it somehow because by turn 4, it can be buffed with +2/+2 taunt. Same applies for webspinner.

Don’t leave too many minions out there, (such as the left over haunted creepers) because it will only help the enemy hunter to exploit. UNLESS, you can argus it ASAP. The thing about playing against hunter is it it is okay to flush the board, but have some of them with taunts (ARGUS) hunters will use their UTH combo, but because they have to go through all the taunts and burn their dogs, or waste their hunter’s mark on voidwalkers, etc. It is a VERY GOOD idea to taunt up on the eggs if you can.

vs Warriors – 80%+ Winrate

Warriors have a hard time dealing with a lot of units on board. They’ll take care of things using shield slam, slam, or weapons, or execute. It should be easy for you. By the time they pull out their ragnaros, alexstrasza, etc, be ready to rush to their face and finish them off quickly.

vs Zoo

This match is arguably decided by turn 2. You need to do whatever you can to kill his minions and establish your board. That includes Soulfire’ing their Flame imp. I think going with the coin is stronger in this matchup. Silence their eggs, etc.

vs Druids

IMO Druids have a shitty AOE, swipe. It’s so useless sometimes that I feel bad. Try to make all minions go above 2 health, and keep clearing their taunts with soulfire/power overwhelming.

vs Shamans

They do kinda have a good AOE, looking at the Lightning Storm. However, that’s 5 mana total spent for 2-3 damage. This gives you some time to recover after the aoe, and things like Nerubian Egg, Haunted Creepers are your friends. Every time they use their totems, you’re getting more and more ahead in sense of tempo. Try to clear the totems if you can, give no chance for any argus/totem shenanigans.

TL:DR I know you guys don’t like the “I HIT LEGEND, LOOK AT THIS DECK LELELEL” but I genuinely want to help. I had so much success against hunter with this deck, that I want you guys to give it a try. If you guys have any questions, comment, or anything, just go ahead. If you wanna play against me or practice, Nix#1892 is the way to go.

EDIT : Replace Leper Gnome with Argent Squire if you’d like, it makes more sense. Regarding BC, the whole point of adding it in there was to swing the game in your favor. SO would accomplish the same job as BC, but because there are a lot of 3/2 minions in this deck already, I decided that extra mana for extra stats wasn’t so necessary when the point of adding the card was a very cheap utility of destroying the weapon. Also, think of the cases where you’re playing against non-weapon class. SO/BC becomes a completely unnecessary addition, but having 1 mana card in your hand would be easier to get rid of. Especially more so because for zoo, getting rid of your hands early is important.

As for Argent Squires, I think I got lucky by finding the right balance.